0. Short answer: the ¥198 beer is a steal, but after 10 p.m. you pay a fixed fee just for sitting down
I never planned to drink alone that night.
I'd left my wallet at home and had only my phone. The first bar didn't take QR payments. The second had just closed. One by one, the options vanished.
The one left standing took PayPay and was still open.[1][2]
Then I opened the menu.
Draft beer: ¥198.
That price looks like a typo.
But the bar's official page also lists a ¥396 cover charge (otoshi, the small appetizer you pay for automatically) and a 10% late-night fee on the bill after 10 p.m.[1][2]
So your first beer here doesn't cost ¥198.
Roughly, it's:
(¥396 cover + ¥198 beer) × 1.10 ≈ ¥653
The beer is cheap.
The seat is not.
Both are true at once.
1. When you have only a phone, "can I pay here?" picks the bar before the food does
What makes the night funny is that the bar chose me, not the other way around.
No wallet, so cash-only places were out.
No QR payment, so another place was out.
Closing time, so another one was out.
What was left: a place that took PayPay and stayed open late.[1][2]
For that kind of night, QR payment is more than a convenience. It widens the list of bars you can actually walk into.
If your phone is all you have, being able to pay comes before taste, atmosphere or even price.
I didn't pick the bar.
My payment app did the final interview.
2. Check the fixed costs first: ¥396 cover charge plus 10% after 10 p.m.
On the menu, ¥198 makes you think the pricing is broken.
But when you drink alone late at night, the fixed costs matter more than the price of one beer.
The bar's official page lists the ¥396 cover charge and the 10% fee after 10 p.m.[1][2]
If we assume the 10% is added to the whole bill, here is what a beer-only night costs:
| Draft beers | Menu price + cover | With 10% night fee (approx.) | Average per beer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ¥594 | about ¥653 | about ¥653 |
| 2 | ¥792 | about ¥871 | about ¥436 |
| 3 | ¥990 | about ¥1,089 | about ¥363 |
| 4 | ¥1,188 | about ¥1,307 | about ¥327 |
| 5 | ¥1,386 | about ¥1,525 | about ¥305 |
So ¥198 is a great price for each extra beer.
But the first one carries all the fixed costs.
"A ¥198 beer means a super cheap first drink" doesn't really hold.
Once you're seated, though, another round is very cheap.
It's simple pricing: collect the fixed fee at the door, then make ordering more feel easy.
3. Value ranking of this bar's menu
Here is what I could see, ranked by how good a deal each option is.
This is not a strict "alcohol per yen" ranking, because I can't know the real pour size or strength.
It simply compares prices and conditions printed on the menu.
No. 1: Draft beer, ¥198
The official drink page also lists a medium draft at ¥198.[3]
That's just a strong deal.
Even with 10% added for late night, each extra beer is only about ¥218.
If you want a quiet beer on your own, this is the one to order.
No. 2: Chinchiro (the dice drink game) — expected cost about ¥451 for 1.5 regular drinks
The two-dice rules on the menu work like this:
- Odd total: 50% chance → mega size, ¥759
- Doubles: 1/6 chance → regular size, free
- Even total, not doubles: 1/3 chance → regular size, ¥214
With fair dice, the expected cost is:
759×1/2 + 0×1/6 + 214×1/3 ≈ ¥450.8
The menu says mega is double the regular amount, so the expected amount you get is:
2×1/2 + 1×1/6 + 1×1/3 = 1.5 regular drinks
That works out to about ¥300.6 per regular drink, or roughly ¥330.6 with the late-night fee.
For a drink that comes with a game, that's a good deal.
No. 3: Mega Jim Beam, ¥759
Regular costs ¥429. Mega costs ¥759 for double the amount.
Per regular-size drink:
759 ÷ 2 = ¥379.5
With the 10% fee, about ¥417.
It's a plain bulk discount, and a good one.
No. 4: Regular Jim Beam, ¥429
With the late-night fee, about ¥472.
Nothing odd about it. It only looks ordinary because the options above are so aggressive.
No. 5: Drinks around ¥539
Many drinks in my photo, such as highballs, gin-and-soda and jasmine shochu mixes, were about ¥539 with tax.
With 10%, about ¥593.
Normal izakaya prices. Next to a ¥198 beer, they suddenly feel fancy.
No. 6: Medium bottled beer, ¥649
The official menu lists several medium bottles at ¥649.[3]
A bottle may hold more than a draft, so this isn't a fair per-milliliter comparison.
Still, if you just want a cheap beer, the ¥198 draft wins by a mile.
4. Is the dice game really a good deal? About 24% off on average
Compare what you pay with what the drink you receive would normally cost.
Half the time you get a ¥759 mega, half the time a ¥429 regular, so the average menu value of your drink is:
¥759×1/2 + ¥429×1/2 = ¥594
The average you actually pay is about ¥450.8.
The gap is about ¥143.2.
That's about 24.1% cheaper than ¥594.
So the game isn't just for show. If the dice are fair, you really do come out ahead on average.
There's one catch: a mega is only a bargain if you want that much drink.
If one regular glass is enough for you, extra volume isn't a plus.
Whether it's worth it depends on how much you wanted to drink, not only on the numbers.
5. The ¥198 beer's real power is the second beer, not the first
This is the best part.
You see ¥198 and think:
"That's crazy cheap!"
Then you remember the ¥396 cover:
"Four hundred yen for bean sprouts?"
Then you spot the 10% night fee:
"There's more?"
Even so, one more beer is ¥198, or about ¥218 with the late-night fee.
The fixed costs are already paid.
So as long as you stay seated, each beer stays absurdly cheap.
From the bar's side, that's clever.
Customers wince at the first bill, then can't resist a second beer at ¥198.
The cover charge is the bouncer, and the cheap beer is the one waving you in.
6. Drinking alone is free and easy, but cigarette smoke is a cost too
Drinking alone by accident had its good side.
You don't wait for anyone else's order.
You drink only what you want.
You can leave whenever you like.
If the beer is good, you keep drinking it.
It feels very free.
On the other hand, the bar's official page says every seat allows smoking.[1][2]
And yes, I noticed the cigarette smell.
That cost never shows up on the bill.
Smoke in your clothes and hair, the air, wanting a quiet drink while the room is loud: for some people, ¥198 doesn't make up for that.
A good price and a good evening are two different things.
This bar is cheap.
But cheap doesn't mean it suits everyone.
7. Convenience store or izakaya? They sell different things
"Why not just buy a can at the convenience store next time?" is a perfectly reasonable thought.
If you want one quiet drink alone,
no cigarette smell,
no cover charge,
and no need for a seat or service,
the convenience store wins easily.
The bar, on the other hand, gives you:
- draft beer poured fresh
- a place to sit
- food you can add
- the dice game
- a place you can walk into late at night
- payment by phone, even if you forgot your wallet
So the real comparison isn't just "¥198 beer versus the price of a canned beer."
Compare the whole package: place, service, fun and fixed fees.
8. Conclusion: the ¥198 beer is a real bargain, but it's best when the experience and the pricing match what you want
That night, one place after another turned me away before I ended up at this one.
No wallet.
A bar with no QR payment.
A closed bar.
Another closed bar.
Finally, a bar that took PayPay.
And a ¥198 beer.
That's how I ended up on my first unplanned solo drinking night.
On price alone, a ¥198 draft is clearly an outlier.
The dice game is a good deal too, at about 24% off on average.
Mega is double the amount for less than double the price.
But late at night, the ¥396 cover charge and the 10% fee come on top.
The cigarette smell and the lack of quiet don't appear on the price list either.
So here's my final answer:
"The beer is really cheap. Getting through the door isn't ¥198."
One line of the menu looks like a bug.
The full bill looks like a normal izakaya.
And then you take a sip.
"Ahhh, a cold draft is the best."
That's really all there is to it.
References (3)
- 酔っ手羽 近鉄四日市店 公式店舗ページ（Hot Pepper系公式ミニサイト） Checked 2026-10-02 JST. The page states PayPay support, a 396-yen appetizer charge, a 10% late-night charge after 22:00, and all-seat smoking. The article does not disclose the visited branch in reader-facing narrative yotteba-kintetuyokkaichi.owst.jp
- PayPayグルメ — 居酒屋革命 酔っ手羽 近鉄四日市店 Checked 2026-10-02 JST. Used as corroboration for PayPay support, late opening hours, and all-seat smoking paypaygourmet.yahoo.co.jp
- 居酒屋革命 酔っ手羽 公式ドリンクメニュー Checked 2026-10-02 JST. Lists draft beer at 198 yen and several medium bottled beers at 649 yen. The visit photograph independently showed the same 198-yen draft price and the Chinchiro/mega pricing used in the calculations yotteba.co.jp
